CONSPIRACY AGAIN . 
184 
[chap. III. 
t heir offer to start, I only replied by vowing vengeance 
against the vakeel. 
Their time was passed in vociferously quarrelling 
among themselves during the day, and in close con¬ 
ference with the vakeel during the night, the substance 
of which was reported on the following morning by the 
faithful Saat. The boy recounted their plot. They 
agreed to march to the east, with the intention of 
deserting me at the station of a trader named Chenooda, 
seven days’ march from Gondokoro, in the Latooka 
country, whose men were, like themselves, Dongolowas ; 
they had conspired to mutiny at that place, and to 
desert to the slave-hunting party with my arms and 
ammunition, and to shoot me should I attempt to 
disarm them. They also threatened to shoot my 
vakeel, who now, through fear of punishment at 
Khartoum, exerted his influence to induce them to 
start. Altogether, it was a pleasant state of things. 
That night I was asleep in my tent, when I was 
suddenly awoke by loud screams, and upon listening 
attentively I distinctly heard the heavy breathing of 
something in the tent, and I could distinguish a dark 
object crouching close to the head of my bed. A slight 
pull at my sleeve showed me that my wife also noticed 
the object, as this was always the signal that she made 
if anything occurred at night that required vigilance. 
